A brief foreword……..
Richard Wright, keyboards, second vocals, composer of music and melodies,
a man of dwelling and candid atmosphere, a careful and prudent man con
with anyone who is observing him, reserved and indolent, good-mannered
and very sensitive, a Silver-lined musician, a touch, but never having
reached perfection, a ‘one-sand grain’ person, a soul that
was not well understood by the rest of his band, a body that felt it
right to step aside when perhaps it was better to do so, a lover of
the skies and the lights of the sea while there is a reflection in his
face showing his “Us and them”
Thoroughly speaking..
Richard William Wright was born in London, Hatch End, on 28 July 1943.
His parents, Bridie and Cedric Wright had other two children, Selina
and Guinivere. Rick went to Haberdasher's School and when he was 17,
he went to the Polytechnic Institute to in Regent Street to study architecture.
At the institute he met Roger Waters and Nick Mason, started plying
music with them and formed a band. About 6 months later, Syd Barrett,
a guitar player, joined the band. The band had different names and other
musicians joined (including Rick’s future wife, Juliette Gale)….they
started to play standard Rhytm'n'Blues but later they build up their
own identity and the band became a stable 4-piece combo when Barrett
joined.This is the birth of the Pink Floyd.
Rick Wright contributed to the band by playing the piano, the Hammond
oragn and all keyboards. He sang many songs solo and as second vocals
as well. The band released its debut single Arnold Layne when it had
already reached fame in the London scenario for its live concerts featuring
great pieces of improvised music and the adoption of avantgarde "light
shows" that introduced lights and slides in order to drag the audience
into psychedelic atmosphere created by the band’s music.
The band’s debut album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was released
in 1967.Richard Wright: "It was a great thing when Syd joined the
band. Before he came, we used to play classic R&B songs because
we guessed that was what a band had to do. Actually, I never really
liked R&B much. I enjoyed jazz better. The coming of Syd changed
everything and we improvised more using guitars and keyboards. Roger
starter to play the bass like a "solo" instrument and I starterd
introducing more of my classical feel".However, Barrett was soon
replaced by David Gilmour because of his mental problems that prevented
him from playing with the rest of the band.
Other singles are released and one of them, It Would Be So Nice written
by Wright and the album A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968). Wright composed
and co-composed a lot of the band’s music and the sound of his
Hammond and keyboards very soon became ‘trademark’. He sang
a lot of the band’s classic songs as well. In Ummagumma (1969),
he wrote and performed an experimental avantgarde piece like “Sysyphus”
inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Sysyphus. In 1971, Pink Floyd
released Meddle including the long and epic “Echoes” with
Wright on vocals including an extraordinary keyboard performance. Worldwide
success for the band came with Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) where Rick’s
contribution was, among other things, a song like The Great Gig In The
Sky and the melody in Us & Them. Other albums are released : Wish
You Were Here (1975) including the famous and marvellous “Shine
On You Crazy Diamond” co-written by Rick and Animals (1977), the
first album not co-written by Wright; the band began to suffer internal
tension due to Water’s increasing leadership. In 1978, Wright
released his first solo album Wet Dream, a great record full of Floyd
sounds. In that period, Rick lives in Greece, at Lindos on the island
of Rhodes and dedicated himself to his great passion, the sea.
His travels and life on his boat “Gala” were a source of
inspiration for his record. In 1979, the band returned with the The
Wall, but the contrasts with Waters were irreversible and Rick was forced
to leave the band. He does play on tour as a paid musician, but the
official split occurs during the shooting of Alan Parker’s film
(1982). The live footage of those concerts, Is There Anybody Out There,
released in 2000, shows how great Rick’s contribution was in that
occasion as well. In 1983, Rick was out of the band and he doesn’t
take part in the making of The Final Cut. In 1984, he and Dave Harris
released (as Zee) the album Identità, today considered as being
"a wrong experiment".In 1986, with Waters out of the band,
Gilmour and Mason summoned Wright to join them for the recording of
A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987). ”I woke up one morning and
I thought 'God, what am I doing?' so I called Dave and we met in Greece
where he told me he was planning another album with Pink Floyd”.
”I told him that if he was looking for someone to play keyboards,
I would have liked to be the one to do it”. ”I got up to
midway with the recordings and then I went on tour with them".
He became an official member of the band again only during the triumphant
tour and this was acknowlegeded in Delicate Sound Of Thunder live in
1988.
In 1994, The Division Bell saw the return of Wright as composer in many
songs (Keep Talking, What Do You Want From Me among others) and as singer
in Wearing The Inside Out. The record was far more complete than the
previous one and was a big hit with the fans who fully rediscovered
the old Pink Floyd feeling. The tour was once again triumphant. In 1996,
Rick released his new solo album, Broken China including some of the
best musicians; the year before, the band was inducted into the Hall
Of Fame. In 2001, the Pink Floyd released Echoes, an anthology including
many classics by Wright. In January 2002, Rick played as honoured guest
in David Gilmour’s concerts in London and Paris.Rick Wright has
three children: Gala, Rick Jr. and Benjamin.
He is now married with Millie.Wright is without doubt a fundamental
element for the equilibrium of Pink Floyd’s music.His keyboards
provide the classic piano sound as well as avantegarde performances
on synth; indeed, the Pink Floyd were pioneers of this sound. Although
he does not have that classic technique and not being known for his
‘virtuoso’ effects, Richard provides a rare and talented
sense of harmony with taste. He is surely the musician in the band who
loves experimentation the most (listen to songs like A Saucerful Of
Secrets, Sysyphus, Up The Khyber, Quicksilver, Any Colour You Like)
and during the years, he has built up an absolutely recognizable and
peculiar sound with the Hammond organ as well as with the various synths
used.
His Impressionist touch is essential and his songs and music are always
recognizable due to the sequences of unusual chords quite often on the
jazzy side. Wright does mention his style was influenced by various
trumpet players like Miles Davis as well as by other keyboard players.
Conclusions:
Let’s stop for a while, having described the life of this Pink
Floyd character, a thought comes to my mind, Mr. Wright, I have had
the opportunity of seeing him in 1994, quite a long time ago and in
that period I necessarily didn’t know him much; in a short time,
I thoroughly started to know the man and the musician; we should, like
with every character, learn something…Richard was not the leader
of the band, but the leader of himself; he had highs and lows and he
managed to stay to step aside and pay respect to his own personality…I
learned from his interviews and ideas that in life the winner is not
always the one who reaches first place, but the first place has to be
inside of us, to have the ability of seeing thinga as they are, without
great castles around or too much talk either..this is what he taught
me and will always cherish this in my private little, mental Pink Floyd
bag.
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